...yes, a nash for MVP story on realgm.com
Suns’ Nash League’s Undisputed MVP
By Kostas Bolos - 23rd January, 2005 10:46 AM
With all due respect to ‘The Big Aristotle,’ is there any doubt whatsoever Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash is the league’s Most Valuable Player to date?
The true measure of a MVP is not how one is able to pad their stat line on a nightly basis, but how vital he is to the overall success of his team.
Many players can put up great stats – the likes of New York’s Stephon Marbury come to mind, players who think they are better than they are because they can stuff a stat sheet, yet haven’t won squat – but the true greats have that uncanny ability of making their teammates around them better.
Nash has long been a solid, perhaps not spectacular point guard – certainly not considered, by any means, the best point man in the Association – until this season, where the 30-year-old veteran has not only emerged as the league’s top floor general but is the likely odds-on-favorite to capture league MVP honors.
Again, with all due respect to Shaq down in South Beach, who has come in and transformed the Miami Heat into an Eastern power (Miami was nevertheless an up-and-comer before Shaq’s arrival), it would be hard to imagine where the Suns would be without their big off-season acquisition.
Actually, it wouldn’t be so hard to imagine at all. Phoenix, without Nash, wouldn’t be much better than the 29-win outfit they were a season ago.
The proof is in the pudding.
With Nash, the league leader with 10.9 assists per game, in the lineup, Phoenix exploded out of the gates to a 31-5 start, averaging a league-high 108.4 points. However, without Nash, who missed the last three-plus games with back and thigh ailments, the Suns struggled mightily, not only losing all four – Nash played only eleven minutes in a Jan. 14 loss at Indiana - games by an average of 11.5 points but managed to score just over 86 points per contest, including a mere 79-point performance in Wednesday’s loss at home versus Memphis.
Nash is the glue that holds the Suns together. As the on-floor orchestrator of head coach Mike D’Antoni’s fast-paced, high-octane offense, Nash provides the team with direction, not to mention instills a little – okay, more like a lot – swagger and confidence within the team because teammates know Nash will find them out on the floor and get them the ball at the right places – just ask prep-to-pro Amare Stoudemire, an early-season MVP candidate of his own whose play had dropped off significantly during Nash’s absence.
Although Phoenix lost a heartbreaking 128-123 OT decision Friday night versus San Antonio in Nash’s return – a game which saw the Spurs overcome a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit – the Suns looked once again like their old, Western Conference-contending selves.
Nash, although somewhat rusty in his return – he did commit seven turnovers – finished with 16 points and 13 assists, but more importantly re-established the fast break that made the Suns so dominant in the early part of the season. With Nash back at the point, Stoudemire – coming off a meager 8-point, 4-rebound performance versus Memphis – returned to his dominant form, scoring 35 points and adding 7 rebounds, as did Shawn Marion, who exploded for 37 and 15. Joe Johnson was a factor, hitting 3-of-5 field goal attempts from 3-pt range, finishing with 21 points.
“Getting Steve back was a huge boost for us, and we played well,” said Quentin Richardson, another of the Suns’ major off-season pickups. “But we just showed our youth. (San Antonio) is a veteran team, and they’ve won two championships.”
The Spurs (33-9) are undoubtedly the class of the NBA right now, but while they aren’t the same team without a Tim Duncan in the lineup, they would nevertheless be a playoff team. A Nash-less Phoenix squad, on the other hand, would probably result in D’Antoni losing his job.
In the Knick of time?: For the first time in his 32 years of coaching, Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens resigned from his post during a season as he stepped down as Knicks bench boss Saturday, citing off-court issues.
In all honesty, can you really blame Wilkens, who had two years and $10 million remaining on his contract, for bailing?
First of all, ‘resigning’ was just a way for Wilkens to save face because he more than likely would have been fired at season’s end by President and GM Isiah Thomas. New York is currently on a five-game losing streak and losers of nine of 10, including two heartbreaking, last-second losses this past week to Chicago and Houston.
While the 67-year-old Wilkens should have never returned to the head coaching ranks following his dismissal from the Toronto Raptors in 2003, it would be hard to blame him entirely for the mess that is the Knicks.
At a disappointing 17-22 on the year, New York is still a ‘factor’ in the Eastern Conference playoff race, trailing Philadelphia by only one game in the ultra-weak Atlantic Division, but let’s be honest here: With a league-high $103 million team payroll, the Knicks have been nothing more than an underachieving disgrace this season, and GM Thomas, not Wilkens, is to be blamed.
Granted, Thomas made the Knicks relevant again upon his arrival last season, taking over for the much-maligned Scott Layden. He fired head coach Don Chaney – who became public enemy No. 1 in Gotham by the time he was let go – acquired a bunch of overpriced talent – namely hometown boy Stephon Marbury - and the Knicks were able to squeak into the playoffs.
However, more was expected of New York this season, and they have simply failed to deliver. And you have to wonder at this point if any coach – Phil Jackson, perhaps, in a year from now? – could come in and turn the Knicks’ fortunes around.
Just look at the roster.
Marbury, the self-proclaimed best point guard in the NBA, has failed to win a playoff series and is a player who you can’t really classify as a ‘leader.’ Allan Houston, who owns one of the league’s most burdensome contacts, is playing with bum knees and now struggles to run the floor or get any lift on his jump shot. Jamal Crawford, though incredibly talented, must learn to attack the basket more and not simply settle for perimeter jumpers all the time if he expects to take his game to another level.
Penny Hardaway, and his multiple injuries, is dead weight personified, Tim Thomas, other than a stellar playoff series versus the Indiana Pacers in 2000, has done next to nothing in the league, and Jerome ‘Junk Yard Dog’ Williams, though a sparkplug on the court, has seen better days, as has Vin Baker.
Ironically enough, the Knicks’ best and most consistent player, Kurt Thomas, has continually been rumored to be on his way to Toronto for swingman Jalen Rose.
That would leave center Nazr Mohammed, power forward Michael Sweetney, and forward Trevor Ariza – a 19-year-old second-round draft pick out of UCLA who has been nothing short of a revelation for the Knicks – as young parts New York could build a solid foundation around for years to come. But as we all know, rebuilding is not the New York way. Rebuilding is not Thomas’ way.
Which is quite ironic, really, because you would have to think the Knicks would probably be further along had Thomas simply started over from scratch when he took over instead of trying to piece together a roster of over-rated, high-priced underachievers.
